In the event of the occurrence of Super Blood Moon, a celestial event wherein the moon despite being covered in the earth’s shadow does not go completely dark but turns reddish instead, a social media post is being shared widely. The post is accompanied by a video that purportedly shows the Moon eclipsing the Sun, with the description ‘Moon crossing the Sun at the north pole’. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of the Moon crossing the Sun at the north pole.
Fact: This is a computer graphic video created by a Tik Tok user. This user had also created many such videos earlier. The video shows grasslands which is not the case at the Poles, as they are covered with ice. Also, we see no reflection of the Moon in the lake as it is eclipsing. All these prove that the video is indeed a computer graphic creation. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
This video of the Moon eclipsing around the Sun is actually an animation video made by Aleksey__nz, a Tik Tok user. Google search led us to tweet by Hoaxeye, a fact-checker who shared the actual Tik Tok video.
Further search led us to his profile, where the artist shared many similar animation videos on his profile. He identified himself as a Computer Graphic creator on his Instagram account.
Apart from these, the post claims that the video is from the North pole. However, one can notice grasslands rather than ice. Also while the Moon is eclipsing, we cannot find any reflections in the lake.
Further, the average distance of the Moon from the Earth is 3,82,900 km. Moon’s orbit around Earth is elliptical, and at perigee, its closest approach to Earth in its elliptical orbit, the moon comes as close as 363,104 km. Super Moon occurs when a full Moon coincides with the Moon’s closest approach to Earth in its elliptical orbit, at perigee. However, at this distance and when the Sun is out, the Moon does not appear as bright as shown in the video.
The Moon rotates at the same rate as its orbital motion, a special case of tidal locking called synchronous rotation. Due to this, we can see only one side of the Moon all the time. However, in the video, we can clearly see the far side of the Moon while it is eclipsing around the Sun. All these details establish that the video is nothing but a computer graphic.
To sum it up, computer graphic video passed off as Moon eclipsing the Sun at the North Pole.
